THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! We had 14 wonderful, thoughtful emails and comments from women about where they gave birth and with whom. I am really thankful as to how generous you were. I know it will help other parents with their upcoming births.

Suzanne T is the winner of Dr. Sears “The Vaccine Book” donated by Happy Baby Food- selected by a random “eenie meenie minie mo” done by Birch. To enter to win 4 tickets to Baby Disco- check out my post tomorrow.

It was so helpful to me to read what you experienced. I know it will help a lot of women too. I am excerpting from each of the 14 submissions. Please keep them coming. To read the full stories and submissions go to the resource page of hospitals/birthing centers.

Here are the excerpts.

Brooklyn Birthing Center: From my first visit, I loved it. The midwives are really friendly and the receptionist seems to know everybody by name. The midwives make sure to answer all questions every visit. They are all about being natural there…..I asked to give birth in the tub and the midwife said we could give it a try. I got in the tub and about 30 minutes later our son was born. It was awesome!….I have no complaints and would highly recommend the center to anybody looking for the comforts of home but scared to actually do a homebirth. It’s amazing what we can accomplish!
-Lori

Home Birth: I gave birth to my daughter Giada in my home in 1999. My 3 year old son attended the birth as well as my husband and two best friends. It happened very quickly and my midwife didn’t make it in time! It was a glorious moment when she came out. I was standing on the bed, with my arms around my husband and my son wrapped around his leg. The two friends, who happened to be midwives in training, caught her. It was their first birth without another supervising midwife. It happened on a sunny June morning in Maine and may have been the happiest day of my life. I intend to have another child and wouldn’t consider any place but home with a midwife and my family around me. -Rebekkah

Lenox HIll Hospital: I had a good experience at Lenox Hill Hospital in Nov. 2006. I had a labor nurse and a student labor nurse, both were friendly, helpful, and supportive during labor and delivery… The recovery nurses were ok, not too quick to offer anything but responsive when needed. They were not very helpful with breastfeeding … Generally, I felt that I was a low needs patient, didn’t ask for much, and my experience was good. I would definitely go there again, even though I now live in Brooklyn.
-Katie

Mount Sinai: The labor and delivery was great except I was stuck in triage of labor and delivery for hours but it turned out to be okay since I was progressing well. Once I was in the maternity ward, the nurses were overworked and fatigued. My daughter hadn’t eaten for a day before anyone said anything!
-Kim

New York Methodist Hospital: My experience at New York Methodist in winter 2007 was extremely negative! There were many kind and competent individuals who helped me throughout my labor, c-section and recovery; however, the nursing staff was obviously understaffed and over-burdened. I was made to feel needy just asking for basic needs like pain medication, a bit of water, a bed pan so I could vomit! (It was my roomate who selflessly rushed to my side with a dish from the dinner tray so that I wouldn’t do it on my son! Then, a nurse on staff barked at me “You shouldn’t bother your roomate.”) …..
-Anonymous

New York Presbyterian-Cornell Weill Hospital: I had a great experience birthing at NYP. I got there and was put in a labor room right away. I did want the wireless fetal monitoring system but the rooms with that (only 2!) were occupied. This was my second baby though and I knew I wouldn’t be in labor very long as it was. The nurse was professional, but not warm and fuzzy…..The aftercare was incredible. Really exceptional. The nurses were young, rested and enthusiastic….
-Karen

The nurses were superb and the doctors were very attentive. The food was terrible, but that was my main complaint. I had a room with an amazing view of the East river. ….The NICU staff was right there in case of any problems, but luckily we didn’t need them.
-Julie

St. Luke’s Roosevelt: …..I found the nurses at St. Luke’s not interested in helping me breastfeed, no pump offerred, they actually encouraged formula because it was easier for them. In terrible pain from the c-section, I had to get up and drag myself to the nursery to see my son and get him for feedings all day and night. He wasn’t brought to me, in fact I only recall once him being wheeled into me, and nurses generally didn’t respond to the call buttons….. My roommates bloody things were piled in the overfilling garbage that we had to share in the bathroom….
-Suzanne

I had a truly yin-yang experience there in Fall 2007. I loved the nurses and staff on the “birthing” floor. They were supportive, fairly responsive given the busy-ness of the ward on the night I delivered. I hated them on the “recovery” floor. I got absolutely no support on breast feeding, was made to feel bad about my inability to latch properly with my son…. -Caroline

I felt like everyone was in a rush and like no one was explaining anything to me. My contractions were made worse and worse by the pitocin and I kept sending my husband out to find a nurse who could come and talk to me to make me feel a little bit better about what was going on with my body. When they would finally come in, I felt like I was bugging them, or like I was just supposed to know that this was going to happen….. When I told the nurse that I was in excruciating pain and that I thought that I needed the epidural and she said it was too early- that I should have morphine instead. Morphine?!
-Rhonda

I gave birth at the birthing center at Roosevelt Hospital and had a really great experience. It was calm and quiet, the nurses were amazing and I felt like I got a combination of a natural birth while also the reassurance of being in a hospital just in case anything was needed. The birthing rooms look a bit like …-Nina

I gave birth to both kids at St. Lukes’ Roosevelt and was happy with both experiences. I had an emergency C-section & a VBAC.……
-CH

St. Vincents Hospital: The staff at St. Vincent’s was half great and half horrible. Some of the nurses were so helpful and really good at their jobs….others were plain mean and scolding to some of the new moms, really??!!
-JJ

The first thing I always tell people about St. Vincent’s is it’s very important to know that you can order in and you don’t have to eat the hospital food……when my son started to go into serious distress the situation was handled very calmly. I was quickly prepped and taken into the operating theatre. ….
-Daphne

Read more on childbirthing from A Child Grows in Brooklyn:

Postpartum doulas

Midwifery

Childbirth and Childcare Education

Labor Doulas

OB/GYNs

Childbirth Sites

Fertility Counseling

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